Essex County Council - Provider Hub
Skip to content
Text size:

Live at Home 2025

The Council commissions its longer term domiciliary care and support services through the Live at Home (LAH) 2025 framework. The LAH framework commenced on the 9th November 2025 with a duration of 6 years, expiring on the 8th November 2031.

This is a two-tier framework, split across the 12 Essex districts, with up to 10 providers per district on tier 1. The following services types can be called of from the framework:

  • Personal Care
  • Night Awake
  • Night Sleep
  • 24hr Care / Live in Care

In each district there are a ranked list of providers. The lists are ranked on price and quality and the Council will call-off from the lists in descending order of the ranking starting with ranked position 1 on tier 1.

Mobilisation documents

Introduction to Essex County Council – Adult Social Care

Our skilled workforce, working with our partners, supports 16,000 people to live independently.

Our vision in Adult Social Care (ASC) is for people in Essex living their lives to the fullest, supported by a community-based model of social care that is preventative and local.  

Everyone should be able to live freely without fear, to make the choices they wish, and to be treated with respect.

Each year we support about 16,000 (sixteen thousand) people who need help to look after themselves and manage everyday tasks.  We help them and their carers to live as independently as possible and to exercise control over their lives.

Our workforce has a range of skills including social work, occupational therapy, mental health and specialist disability practitioners, as well as highly skilled support staff. We work creatively to maximise the strengths of each individual we support and help them to achieve positive outcomes.

We commission care and support from a strong, diverse care market across Essex which provides a range of services including:

  • home care
  • residential and nursing care
  • intermediate care
  • day opportunities
  • supported housing options 

We work closely with the care market to ensure there is sufficient capacity to meet demand, and to improve the quality of care provision.

In order to meet the needs of adults throughout the county and to achieve desired outcomes, we work collaboratively with partners in health, and the public, private and voluntary sectors. We commission and design services together to best support our communities.

As part of mobilisation and throughout the life of the Live at Home (LAH) contract we will support you, as key providers of care, to identify health and social care partners within your service delivery area. We will make introductions and explore opportunities for collaborative working to better support you as providers, and to improve coordination of care for the Adults that you are supporting.

Service Development and Improvements

As part of ongoing delivery of the new LAH contract, we are committed to implementing a programme of service development and service improvement. We will share additional details about this at initial locality events late in 2025/early 2026 which you will be required to attend so please look out for invites to these.

The service development and service improvement plan includes a number of exciting pilot projects for providers as well as a plan for introduction and integration of providers into local health and social care systems. We look forward to working with you to ensure that you are supported in delivering care, and that LAH services are delivered to the highest possible standard.

Key Information and ways in which the Council communicates with the market

Locality Teams

Essex County Council’s operational Adult Social Care Teams operate on a locality basis. The locality teams consist of North East Essex, West Essex, Mid Essex, South West Essex and South East Essex. For more information on the locality teams/contact details please use the links below –

North East Essex – Locality Team Contacts

Mid Essex – Locality Team Contacts

South Essex – Locality Team Contacts

West Essex – to be added to the provider hub

Provider Hub

If you are new to working with Essex County Council, there is a large amount of relevant information contained on the Council’s Provider Hub, which you can access by clicking here. Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with the information contained on the website site as early as possible.

Provider Bulletin

The Council sends out a weekly Provider Bulletin. The bulletin is a collation of the latest news across social care in the county and is a valuable tool for those working in the sector to keep up to date. To sign up to receive it please click here.

Provider Newsletter

Sign up to receive the monthly Provider Newsletter from Essex County Council. The newsletter is also a collation of the latest news across social care in the county. To register to receive it please click here.

Quality Improvement Newsletters

To find out the support and free training you can get from the Council’s Provider Quality Improvement Team please see the two different newsletters available here.

Council Contacts

For key equipment service, finance or operational teams contact details please click here.

Live at Home Team – Procurement Services

If you have been notified that you are a Tier 1 provider via the Assessment Summary Letter and Schedule 13, you will have a named contract manager within the team to contact and meet with. This manager will get in touch with you during the contract mobilisation phase to share contact details and arrange a meeting.

If you are a Tier 2 provider, for the majority of providers you will not have a named contract manager. However, if you have a contractual query you may email liveathome@essex.gov.uk in the first instance. Your email will be triaged and one of the Live at Home team will be in contact with you.

Contacting Adult Social Care

For Providers (and all professionals) we no longer accept telephone calls or email referrals - providers should use the Portal - click here.

Only in a very urgent situation should Providers telephone during daytime hours.

Safeguarding Contacts

If you are unsure if your concern is a safeguard please click here for further information.

Published on the Essex Safeguarding Adults Board (ESAB) website – our Essex Decision Support Framework will help advise you on what is a reportable concern.

**A new improved version will be issued in early 2026 which will be accessible from the ESAB website and Provider Hub Safeguarding Pages**

Alternatively, you can call the Organisational Safeguarding Duty line on 033301 39032 for advice or email org.safeguards@essex.gov.uk (please note: we do not accept referrals this way – and you will be advised to use the portal should this be required).

If you need to raise an Adult Safeguard referral, professionals should notify the Council by completing an online form via the Adult Safeguarding Portal

If the matter is urgent and in or out of hours you can contact us on:

Essex - 0345 6037630 (out of hours 0345 606 1212)

There is a demo video as to how to use ECC’s Safeguarding Portal accessible on the ESAB website – click here to view it.

To raise adult safeguarding concerns – where the alleged harm or abuse occurred in Southend or Thurrock areas – contact;

Southend

Telephone: 01702 215008 (Out of hours: 0345 606 1212)  | Adult Social Care online reporting:  https://www.livewellsouthend.com/care-support-adults

Thurrock

Telephone: 01375 511000 | email: Thurrock.First@thurrock.gov.uk

If the adult is experiencing a mental health crisis please contact NHS 111 option 2. 
You can also speak to the Adult's allocated social worker if known.

To raise safeguarding concerns relating to children – please click here.

Where a alleged crime has occurred; please also report via Essex Police.

Service Placement Team/Sourcing Process

Please refer to Appendix 1 of this document for contact details and sourcing processes used by the Council. Part 3 of the framework contract, sections 1, 8, 9 and 10 also provide further detail in terms of sourcing processes.

Payments and the payments system (Provider Portal)

For information on the Council’s Provider Portal, ‘how to’ guides and training videos click here. For Live at Home Services, ensure you click on the hyperlinks under the Non-residential heading. Schedule 3 of the framework contract, provides further detail in terms of payments.

Please note – we have recently written to providers new to working with Essex via ProContract to request bank details and the completion of the Extranet Security Form (as well as other information). If you have not responded to the message on ProContract, please can you do so as a matter of urgency. If you have already responded, you do not need to take any action.

Provider Quality

For further details on the support available or to find out some of the ways in which the Council will assess the quality of your service please click here. For further detail on the contractual Performance Standards please refer to Schedule 2 of the contract.

Provider Forums

These are a networking opportunity for Adult Social Care Providers and Essex County Council to meet both in-person and on-line at a local level. They are free to attend and provide the opportunity to discuss operational issues, system and council updates, have topical discussions, Q&A sessions and for providers to have their say. Representatives from system partners, including Health, attend the forums for a whole system approach to issues raised.  For more information on the forums click here.

Sensory services in Essex

Essex County Council commissions Essex Cares Ltd (ECL) and six Voluntary Sector partners to deliver a comprehensive Sensory Service for residents with sight and/or hearing loss. ECL provides a triage service that acts as the front door for referrals, ensuring individuals are directed to the most appropriate support. They also deliver specialist sensory rehabilitation, develop in-house apprenticeships to grow local expertise, and coordinate initiatives such as the Sensory Action Alliance and sensory champions training. For more information in relation to sensory services click here.

Access to community equipment

The current Integrated Community Equipment Loan Service (ICELS) provider for Essex County Council is Medequip Assistive Technology Limited.

Once a provider has accepted a care package, individual carers will have the opportunity to express interest in Essex County Council’s Community Equipment Approved Assessor Programme. The MS Forms should be used to submit an Expression of Interest for individuals(s) within the organisation who will be able to access low-value equipment (please note that only company email addresses should be used, submissions from personal email addresses will not be accepted)

Requests will be reviewed by the ICELS Team and if approved, candidates will be sent information on how to enrol on the Approved Assessor E-Learning programme. Approved Assessor training equips participants with the skills to conduct functional assessments, identify people’s needs, and order simple equipment and minor adaptations through the ICELS. This enables professionals across health, social care, and allied services to contribute to wellbeing, prevention, enablement, and long-term community support.

More detail can be found on the information sheet attached as Appendix 2.

Care Technology

Care Technology (sometimes referred to as Telecare or Assistive Technology) is a range of monitoring and alert equipment designed to help individuals remain independent at home and within the community.

Our current care technology offer includes

  • Personal alarms and pendants
  • Fall detectors
  • Monitored Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
  • Medication dispensers
  • GPS trackers

For more information on the Council’s Care Technology offer click here.

For information on training your staff, following which they will be able to access various pieces of tec enabled care click here.

The East of England Displaced Worker Platform

The East of England Displaced Worker Platform is a free digital service designed to connect social care providers with displaced care workers seeking employment in the region. For more information in relation to this please click here.

ECA

Essex County Council works alongside the Essex Care Association. This is an organisation that providers can chose to belong to if required. For more information, see below or to visit their website click here.

The information above is accurate as of November 2025. Updates are made to the Provider Hub information links above, so please ensure you regularly visit the pages for the latest information.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Sourcing Process Overview

Specialist Views of Others (SVO) process

Batching process

Appendix 2

Approved assessor info sheet 2025

 

 

Please click here for a downloadable version of the Mobilisation Pack

1 Sourcing process

1.1 How will I receive care package referrals?

1.2 When will I receive the Batching List?

1.3 Is there a provider portal for care package referrals?

The Service Placement Team (SPT) will contact providers by either telephone or secure email in the first instance to offer a package.

Tier 1 providers

As stated on page 2 of the document titled ‘Sourcing process’ (embedded within the document titled ‘Introduction to Essex County Council – Adult Social Care’, the Batching List (which is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet of packages that need to be sourced) is sent to Tier 1 providers only if there are care packages still being sourced at 4pm. Tier 1 providers should respond to the Batching List by ticking the packages they are interested in and submitting the file to SPT by 10am the following day. SPT will then contact them by either telephone or secure email to discuss an offer. Please note that the Batching List is only sent to Tier 1 providers. If there aren’t any packages that need to be sourced because these have already been placed with tier 1 providers then it will not be issued.

Tier 2 providers

If a care package has not been accepted by a Tier 1 provider, then the Service Placement Team will contact the Tier 2 providers in ranked list order by either telephone or secure email. Please note that Tier 2 providers will not be sent the Batching List. 

All ECC market (framework and spot suppliers)

If SPT is unable to source a care package using the processes outlined above, it will be added to the ‘Available Packages’ list. This list is emailed to providers on Monday and Thursday. These packages will be available to all framework providers, as well as the Spot market, with the opportunity to discuss propose rates / ways in which the care package could be delivered to make it viable.

The Council may also undertake mini-competitions to source care packages, however most care packages will be sourced using the processes set out above.

Currently, SPT does not utilise a portal for care package referrals.

2 Provider Portal - update for new suppliers to Essex County Council (ECC)

2.1 How do I sign up to use the Provider Portal?

The Provider Portal is the portal for the supplier payments system (please note this is not used for care package referrals). Due to the volume of new suppliers to Essex, a new provider will not be set up on the Provider Portal until it has a care package. This means that a provider will not be able to access the system or be trained on it until that time.

If you are a new provider to ECC and you receive your first care package, you will be set up on the Provider Portal using the bank details and Extranet Form already submitted to the Council. Once you receive your email login to the Provider Portal, please ensure you activate it within 24 hours of receipt. Then an officer from the Non-residential Payments Team will be in touch with you in relation to training on the system.

 

3 Providers already working the Council, delivering LAH services

3.1 I’m a provider delivering care packages commissioned under the previous (LAH 2021) framework / the LAH Spot contract – what happens to these packages?

3.2 Will there be a change to package prices for existing packages.

As an existing LAH framework / spot provider, your package(s) will transition onto the new LAH framework 2025 terms and conditions with the exception of the package price(s). The price(s) for existing packages will continue at the rate that was in force prior to the commencement of the new framework. However, where there is a package change and a new purchase order has been issued – for example where there is an increase or decrease in care hours, the price will then change to the new rate selected.

 

4 Do I need to submit a CSV file as part of the Key Performance Indicator        requirement.

The Live at Home framework includes a requirement for a CSV file containing Electronic Homecare Monitoring data (relating to ECC funded adults) to be submitted to ECC on a four-weekly basis. This requirement is a Key Performance Indicator, as set out in Schedule 2, Appendix 2 of the contract. We are in the process of developing and testing portals to upload the data to. Whilst this is underway, tier 1 providers and providers delivering intermediate care contracts will be required to submit the data via secure email, from January 2026 onwards. Your Procurement Manager will contact you in the new year to support you with this process. You are not required to take any action relating to submitting a CSV file until contacted by your manager.

We will notify tier 2 providers of the date that EHM data files should be submitted in due course.

We would like to remind you that it is a contractual requirement to use an EHM system to monitor care visit delivery, and to make this data available if requested to do so by ECC.

Please note that for KPI scoring purposes, providers will be deemed to have submitted a file for the first 4 week period and will be scored as such.

 

5 Can I change the registered office (branch) I am delivering Live at Home (LAH) services from?

You may submit a request to change the registered office you are delivering services from, however it is at the discretion of the Council as to whether this is agreed. It is a contractual requirement for a provider to maintain a valid CQC registration for each registered office listed in their Live at Home agreement (in Schedule 14 ‘Branches’). If a provider, for example ‘archives’ a branch with the CQC, then that branch is no longer considered to have a valid CQC registration. If a provider wants to deliver the services from a branch that is not listed in the contract, the provider may request for a contract novation to take place, whereby the Council will consider whether a branch / location listed in Schedule 14 can be replaced by another branch / location. Before making any changes, please submit a request through your allocated Procurement Manager or email Liveathome@essex.gov.uk. A manager will then contact you to explain the process and advise whether a recommendation for approval will be taken forward.

 

 

Please click here for a downloadable version of the FAQ's

Coming soon

The Ranked List Tool allows providers to view all providers on each of the Live at Home framework ranked lists. There are ranked lists for each of the 12 districts and for the service types for Personal Care, Night Awake and Night Sleeping services. The second tab of the tool can be used to give an overview of all of the ranked list positions of a provider.

Please click here to view the Live at Home Framework Ranked List Tool.

Last updated: 19/02/2026
Next Council Policies